DBM to release fund assistance to LGUs for Covid-19 relief

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte updates the nation on the government’s efforts in addressing the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the Malago Clubhouse in Malacañang on April 6, 2020. ACE MORANDANTE/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA — The Department of Budget and Management (DBM) is expected to release funding assistance to cities and municipalities to help their relief and response efforts against the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19).

According to President Rodrigo Duterte’s second weekly report submitted to Congress, the “Bayanihan Grant to Cities and Municipalities” provides financial aid equivalent to one month of a local government unit’s (LGU) internal revenue allotment, totaling PHP30.824 billion.

Duterte also noted that the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) has launched a lending program for LGUs to fund the procurement of essential goods and services amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“The LBP also recently launched the PHP10 Billion Help via Emergency Loan Assistance for LGUs (HEAL) Lending Program for provincial, city, and municipal governments for emergency funding in the purchase of goods and procurement of services,” Duterte said in his report.

“Loans will have an affordable fixed interest rate of 5 percent per annum, payable up to a maximum of five years, with a one-year grace period on principal payment,” he added.

Under the Bayanihan to Heal as One law, the executive branch is required to submit a report to Congress every Monday on how Duterte’s special powers are used.

The report must include the amount and corresponding utilization of funds used, augmented, reprogrammed, reallocated, and realigned.